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Unable to stay away from painting for long and having gone through a catharsis (Bill Porteous interviewed by Angela Andersen, 02/01) as the result of the physical labour of homesteading, he had his first Canadian one-man show at the New Design Gallery in Vancouver in 1965. The following year he was recipient of a Canada Council Senior Fellowship for travel and study of Tibetan Art in India. During the year overseas, he travelled to a Zen Buddhist monastery in Japan, to Delhi, and to Tibetan refugee camps in Northern India. The visit to India left an indelible mark on Wise's artwork and exposed him first-hand to Asian art techniques, works of art, thought, and religion (George Woodcock, "Dragons, Mandalas, and Secret Writings: Paintings of Jack Wise," Artscanada (October 1976), 1). In 1967, Wise started a longstanding exhibition relationship with the Bau-Xi Gallery in Vancouver. He travelled to Europe after receiving a Canada Council Senior Arts Award for Residence in Europe in 1969. He spent much of his time in Spain and exhibited at galleries in Edinburgh, London, and Heidelburg. With his wife, Mary, Jack had three children in the early seventies (Andrew Scott, "Jack Wise, " Arts West, 1978, 19). After several years living between various homes in Victoria and on islands off the coast of Vancouver Island, Wise moved to a cabin on Denman Island for the final years of his life . Wise spent the final years of his life with Marilyn Hausman. Surrounded by nature and secluded in his home, Wise was able to meditate and paint uninterrupted. His health swiftly declined and he died at the age of 68 in November of 1996. Jack Wise rejected art as a social commodity believing it to be a form of social communication. Unfortunately, in order to survive Wise needed to sell his art. In particular, he regretted having to sell some of his mandalas, as they were intended to be unsigned gifts (Rimmer, Jack Wise:Language of the Brush,1998). He left an immense and impressive body of work that is rooted in his great spiritual education and understanding.
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